⌖ | | Genya Shinazugawa

At the time of his debut during Final Selection, Genya was a short young man with a rough appearance to him. The space where his eyebrows would've been is constantly furrowed, which gave him a permanently angered appearance. His hair is styled into a buzz cut, with only a small clump of messy black hair left to grow on the top of his head. He also possessed a large, jagged scar that ran over his right cheekbone from his ear and to over his nose. Genya is seen wearing a purple, sleeveless yukata over a plain black shirt with long sleeves. Later on, when seen again in the Butterfly Mansion, Genya having hit puberty, had a much more feral appearance, having undergone a growth spurt that put him at almost six feet tall, along with inward-slanting, and large almond-shaped eyes with purple irises, similar to Sanemi’s. His hair is also much longer, worn in more of a mohawk style, the strands much longer and visible around his neck. It is also noted that his boyish features got toned down, and he became more muscular and gained many more scars all over his body. His outfit changed to a dark olive-green version of the Demon Slayer uniform, over which he still sported his old purple yukata. When he meets Tanjiro again in the Swordsmith Village, Genya's physical appearance was less intense and intimidating, and although still tall and rugged, his more youthful features were visible. By Hashira Training, his eyes became softer and less wild. After consuming a piece of Aizetsu's flesh, Genya gained many physical qualities reminiscent of a demon. The tips of his hair gained yellow highlights, his mouth grew fangs, and his eyes became a demonic combination of black sclera and yellow irises. Genya was initially a foul-mouthed and ill-tempered individual; a "lone wolf" who refused any help from others and did not show any interest in being polite or having any manners. During Final Selection, he roughly handled Kanata Ubuyashiki by grabbing her hair and yelling at her due to his impatience, and he later provoked Tanjiro Kamado into directly confronting him with physical force as an attempt to diffuse the situation. His ill temper and brash way of speaking heavily resembles that of his older brother, Sanemi. He became more open to cooperation during the battle against Hantengu, the Upper Rank Four, where he worked alongside Tanjiro, Mitsuri Kanroji, and Nezuko Kamado. After some time, he learned to become more sociable and less ill-mannered towards others, particularly towards Tanjiro and his friends. Genya also appears to be very confident in battle, telling Aizetsu to focus on him despite the latter already having stabbed Genya with his Yari, and later announced his name to the demon and declared that he is the one who will kill him. During Sekido's near fatal attack on Genya, he shed tears of regret when he believed he was about to die without ever getting the chance to properly apologize to Sanemi for his harsh words, only encouraged to push past it when Tanjiro had rescued him and placed his faith onto him. Sanemi's refusal to acknowledge Genya made him insecure as he came to realize just how weak he is compared to his companions. When he re-encountering his brother during his section of Hashira Training, he attempts to apologize and make amends with his brother, but is left demoralized when Sanemi berates him after threatening to kill him. His desire to reconnect with his brother was so strong that he confesses his habit of eating demons to fight, knowing that the practice was taboo. Nonetheless, he did whatever he could to help his allies, even if it got him horribly maimed in the process, such as shielding Tanjiro from Aizetsu's Blood Demon Art, and playing a pivotal role in the battle against Kokushibo. Despite his brother's harsh rebukes, he bore no ill will towards him, a belief reinforced by Tanjiro and eventually by Sanemi himself. His abrasive and hostile persona was short-lived, in part due to Tanjiro's influence and camaraderie, and the two would form a deep friendship afterwards. After the attack on the Swordsmith Village, Genya is shown to be a much more pacified and caring individual, giving a warm smile when Tanjiro tearfully reunites with a now sunlight immune Nezuko, inwardly congratulating him for his happiness. Later on, when Sanemi decides to beat up Tanjiro for defending Genya, whom he was also going to beat up, the younger Shinazugawa pleaded with his brother to spare the Demon Slayer. When he reencounters Tanjiro while he is taking Gyomei's training, Genya thanks him for standing up for him during the incident at Sanemi's dojo before going on to teach him about Repetitive Action, before sharing a laugh at Gyomei's expense. In the evening, Genya offers to help Tanjiro cook onigiri and later asks Tanjiro when his emotions were most worked up in the past in an attempt to further help in his training. When he pauses, Genya immediately apologizes for potentially brining back haunting memories and gives Tanjiro further encouragement. In spite of his new-gained maturity, Genya could occasionally slip back into his confrontational habits, most notably when he punched Zenitsu Agatsuma and scuffled with Inosuke Hashibira after they had insulted Sanemi and him respectively. In the fight against Kokushibo, Genya was largely indisposed due to being horizontally bisected by the demon, but even then he showed an intense devotion to help others, as he ate a piece Kokushibo's hair and sword all with the goal of protecting his mentor and elder brother. In the end, as the boy was disintegrating into ash, his last words were a plea to gods to give Sanemi a prosperous life, calling his brother the nicest person in the world and thanking him for all he'd done. Tragically, this shows that despite Sanemi's own anger and mistreatment of Genya out of a misguided attempt to protect him, he loved his brother until the very end and wanted the best for him.

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